Iran has confirmed the delivery of 40 Chinese J-10C multirole fighter jets, marking the country’s most substantial airpower upgrade in decades, in a shift in regional military dynamics. The acquisition, which was announced by Iranian state media on Tuesday, July 1, underscores growing military ties between Tehran and Beijing, while signalling frustration over delayed Russian arms deliveries and increasing defiance toward Western powers. “Our skies are no longer vulnerable,” declared Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi, commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), during a televised ceremony unveiling the jets. “With the arrival of these aircraft, we send a…
Author: Abdoulaye Kay
Saheed Ahmed, a final-year veterinary medicine student at the University of Ibadan (UI), has been named the World’s Best Veterinary Student for 2025 by the World Veterinary Association (WVA). The announcement was made by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in a statement shared via its official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Thursday. The WVA award honours Ahmed’s exceptional academic performance, outstanding leadership, and dedication to community service. As part of the honour, Ahmed will receive a €5,000 cash prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC, where he will be recognised at the 2025 World Veterinary Congress. Ahmed previously served…
The World Bank has approved an additional $65 million loan to support Nigeria’s Sustainable Procurement, Environmental, and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) project, raising the total funding for the initiative to $145 million. According to the World Bank’s official records, the latest financing was approved on June 24, 2025, and the project status has been updated to “active,” indicating it has reached the “bank approved” stage. Originally launched in 2021 with an initial $80 million loan approved in February 2020, the SPESSE project is aimed at developing institutional capacity for managing procurement, environmental, and social standards across both public and private…
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party’s 2023 governorship candidate in Lagos State, has declared President Bola Tinubu’s administration a “complete failure,” citing Nigeria’s worst economic crisis in four decades and escalating insecurity. Speaking during a ChannelsTV interview on Tuesday, Rhodes-Vivour decried the deteriorating living conditions under the current government. “This government has failed. Nigeria is now the 10th poorest country in the world, and citizens are grappling with the highest cost of living in over 40 years,” he said. He also lamented the worsening security situation, claiming that over 10,000 people have died in the North and around 7,000 in the…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) has announced full availability on all major crude oil pipelines across the country throughout June 2025 — a first in recent years. Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd., Mr. Bashir Ojulari, delivered his keynote address at the 24th NOG Energy Week in Abuja. He attributed the achievement to industry-wide security interventions led by NNPC Ltd., which have significantly improved crude oil production. Ojulari emphasized the company’s improved financial position, noting that NNPC now consistently meets its cash-call obligations in Joint Venture operations. “The narrative has always been that NNPC couldn’t meet…
China recently completed a 157.79-kilometre stretch of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway using a fully autonomous fleet of machines. The project, spearheaded by Sany Heavy Industry, featured AI-powered pavers, rollers, and drones operating with almost no human labor—at least on the surface. At the heart of this innovation was a 20-meter-wide unmanned paver, supported by six 13-tonne double-drum rollers and three 30-tonne rubber-wheel rollers. These machines were all synchronized using advanced AI algorithms and China’s Beidou satellite navigation system, reportedly achieving centimeter-level accuracy. The flagship paver, SAP200C-10, was able to lay a remarkable 19.25-meter-wide layer of asphalt in a single pass—an…
A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has convicted and ordered the deportation of 14 Chinese nationals found guilty of cyber-terrorism and internet fraud, crimes deemed to be aiding terrorism and threatening Nigeria’s national security. The convicts were arrested in a sting operation by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 19, 2024, in Lagos. According to a statement released by the anti-graft agency on Friday via its official X (formerly Twitter) handle, the Chinese nationals were part of a larger cybercrime syndicate. In total, 792 suspects were arrested in the operation, most of them…
The Group Chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX Group), Umaru Kwairanga, has praised the President/Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, for his substantial contributions to Nigeria’s capital market and private sector development. He made this remark during a courtesy visit by capital market stakeholders to the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, as well as Dangote Fertiliser Limited. Kwairanga, who called for the listing of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Dangote Fertiliser on the NGX, stated that such a move would represent a natural progression in the Dangote Group’s journey towards transparency, market leadership, and inclusive wealth creation. He noted that…
Cocaine production, seizures, and use all reached unprecedented levels in 2023, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), marking the illicit substance as the fastest-growing global drug market. In its annual report released from Vienna, the UNODC revealed that illegal cocaine production surged to 3,708 tonnes in 2023—a nearly 34% increase from 2022 and more than four times the level recorded a decade ago. The sharp rise is largely attributed to expanded coca bush cultivation in Colombia and revised data on crop yields. Global seizures of cocaine also peaked at 2,275 tonnes, reflecting a 68% increase…
China has unveiled a groundbreaking development in transportation technology with the successful testing of a prototype magnetic levitation (maglev) train capable of reaching speeds up to 620 miles per hour (1,000 km/h). Dubbed the “high-speed flying train,” the cutting-edge transport system operates within a low-vacuum tube and represents a major leap forward in China’s ambition to redefine the future of ultra-fast travel. The initial test run was conducted on a 2-kilometer-long low-vacuum pipeline, marking a significant milestone for the country’s rapidly advancing maglev research and development program. The prototype is part of China’s “ultra-high-speed low-vacuum tube maglev transport system” project,…